Shredded Chicken and Bacon BBQ Pizza

This pizza shows up on our dinner table at least once a week. I have made it 1.8 billion times, so it was high time I let you in on the goods.

I fully blame Rachel for my obsession with this pizza. And I know she isn't sorry about it.

Her and I share an addiction a love for all things BBQ sauce. We could be lost on a deserted island together, and as long as we had some BBQ sauce, this BBQ pizza and her BBQ breaded onion rings, all would be right with the world.

I am not ashamed.

This pizza has become a regular in our house; practically once a week. I just can't quit this pizza. Nor do I want to.

It's the perfect at-home-Friday-night-pizza.

It needs to show up in your rotation too. Particularly this Friday.

Just because I said so.

This one certainly takes a lot longer to make but I have a sure promise here: it is worth EVERY.single.bit of effort you put out.

And you will attempt to eat the entire pizza in one sitting because you just cannot stop eating.

This will probably make you explode, so please don't attempt.

Just sayin!

So the thing about this pizza is this - I bake the chicken in the oven until it is fully cooked, then it is easy to shred, which I do so in my stand mixer (please try if you've never done so), THEN I stick the cooked, shredded chicken in a skillet that cooked bacon (so oh yes, there is bacon fat in that baby!!). Even though the chicken is fully cooked prior to this, I like to let the chicken sit in the bacon fat and heat up to crisp up a bit and soak up that artery-clogging goodness we call bacon fat. Because it tastes good.

Judge me all you want ;)

Feel free to skip the step of baking the chicken and go straight to the cooking the chicken in the bacon fat, but I personally love the texture of the shredded chicken. I hate biting into huge chunks of chicken on my pizza.

Other than that, enjoy the love out of this pizza; I know I do (and Rachel too!! :) )

Shredded Chicken and Bacon BBQ Pizza | Printable Recipeserves 4-6 (or 1 if you can force it all ;) )ingredients:for the dough:

2 1/2 cups flour (more if needed)

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1 tsp dried parsley

1 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp dried garlic

1 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes (optional, for spice)

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 cup warm-hot water (not boiling)

1/4 tsp sugar

1 instant yeast packet

for the chicken:

1 b/l s/l chicken breast, or 2 b/l s/l chicken thigh (to preference)

1 Tsbp olive oil

2 garlic cloves, broken and skin removed

kosher salt and pepper, to taste

paprika, to taste

red pepper flakes, to taste (optional)

for the pizza:

1 recipe dough (above)

baked chicken (recipe above)

4-6 pieces bacon, uncooked

2 cups favorite BBQ sauce (more or less if desired)

2 cups cheese mixture of Mozzarella, Parmesan and Cheddar Cheese (more or less as desired)

1/3 cup chopped red or yellow onion

1/3 cup chopped mushrooms (optional, not shown here)

directions:

To make the dough, place the warm-hot water in a small bowl, and stir in the sugar and yeast packet until fully dissolved. Let sit for 5-10 minutes, until a head begins to form on top of the water (this is how you know the yeast is activated)

While the yeast and water are reacting, mix the dry ingredients with a whisk: flour, kosher salt, parsley, oregano, basil, garlic, red pepper flakes, as well as the olive oil.

Once fully mixed, and the head is formed in the yeast and water, place the dry mixture in the bowl of the stand mixer with the paddle attachment, turn on LOW and slowly pour in the water/yeast mixture. Mix until dough forms a ball. If needed, knead the dough with your hands and mix in extra flour if dough is too sticky or wet.

Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and place in dark warm spot until dough is at least doubled in size.

For the chicken, place chicken, olive oil, garlic and spices in casserole dish and in a 400F oven (205C) and bake until fully cooked through, at least 20 minutes. Let cool slightly and then shred using the stand mixer and paddle attachment (and whole garlic cloves)

While the chicken is cooking, cook the bacon in a skillet placed over medium-high heat, making sure to reserve the fat.

Place the shredded cooked chicken in the skillet with the bacon fat and let crisp up and soak up the bacon fat.

When the dough is risen to desired size, roll out to desired size, place on pizza baking circle, and assemble pizza with BBQ sauce, cheese, bacon (chopped up), onion (and mushrooms if choose), chicken, and then drizzle extra BBQ sauce on top.

Bake at 425F (218C) for 15-20 minutes, until golden and cheese is melty and slightly crispy

25 comments
:

lol love this post so much. Yes - deserted on an island with bbq sauce and this pizza plus apple pie and uhmmm some margaritas! :) PS I'm totally making it again this week. It's easily a weekly or at the very least bi-weekly thing here. De-freaking-licious :)

I couldn't agree more! Made this several times myself. Every time I make it, I make sure I am having someone new over for dinner and they are ultra impressed and ask where the recipe came from, of course I say, check out CarlasConfections.com and BakedbyRachel.com. Hello!!!

This looks unbelievably good. So much better than the salad I'm eating right now. What was I thinking?!?! bbq pizza > salad. Absolutely LOVE this so much - I would probably eat the entire thing. Not kidding.

This is one awesome pizza! BBQ chicken pizza is my husbands pizza of choice when we go out and I have never attempted it at home. That is going to change after one look at this recipe! Thanks for the tip about shredding the chicken. I always did it by hand before and it is a pain!

BBQ pizza is the end all be all of pizzas. And that says something cause my favorite of all time is Hawaiian. I feel like such a trader - but with that pile of meat and carbs how can you turn it down!?! Love this!

I make pizza at least once a week, so this looks like something we might like. The only problem is that I am not sure what b/l and s/l stand for when you are listing the chicken in the ingredients. What does it stand for?

I didn't know anyone like barbeque sauce as much as I do!!!! Glad to have you on board. Can't wait to try this BBQ pizza against the one I normally use and BBQ onion rings are on the menu immediately! Thanks to both you and Rachel for many wonderful recipes. Keep on Cookin'

LOL thank you! Ranch is a must with this one ;) It is super easy to shred the chicken in the mixer too! You just pop it in the bowl and add the paddle attachment and set it on LOW to MED speed. Thats it! You will seriously never go back to shredding with your hand!! :)

Yeah about 15 or 16", but it depends of course on how large you roll it out. We typically just fit it to the pans we have. Ours is standard size. The dough is pretty thick though, so it allows you to roll it out pretty thin if you desire. Hope you enjoy the pizza. It is awesome! :)

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